Crypto.com’s Updated Staking Rates for Cards
October 23rd, Crypto.com released an update via email to its cardholders letting them know that effective November 2nd they will be updating their card staking requirements.
TLDR: With the recent drop in CRO price, the amount of CRO new users need to lock up to get the MCO card has increased by 250%. Cardholders who have previously staked for the card will not need to increase their card stake and will retain all existing rewards and benefits (provided they do not unstake).
“We are writing to inform you that we are updating our Card Staking Requirements, effective 2 Nov 2020 at 07:00:00 UTC.
Please note: You will not have to increase your Card Stake, and all existing rewards and benefits for your card will remain the same.
The new Card Staking Requirements will apply in the event that you unstake, and then restake, or if you upgrade your card after 2 November 2020.”
What are the new staking requirements needed for the different Crypto.com card tiers?
What Were the Card Staking Requirements Before?
Before this most recent scheduled requirement adjustment, most of the staking rates for the Visa card were between 1,000–1,000,000. It appears to combat the recent 50% drop in CRO value, Crypto.com will be increasing their card staking rates by 250%.
This change for card users comes shortly after they changed their staking rates for general CRO holders. The backlash that they received for making that adjustment with no heads-up, stirred up so much heat that they immediately changed it again. While they did not restore their original Earn rates (previous maximum of 18% APY), they did provide around 50% increases from their originally proposed rate. See detailed rate changes below.
Did They Learn From Their Mistakes the Last Time Around?
CEO Kris Marszalek, during a recent AMA, noted the flaws they made when they released the new staking rates for CRO holders. Two key regrets he mentioned were,
1. How the new rates were rolled out and communicated
2. The turnaround time between the announcement and the actual implementation
After listening to their AMA a few days ago, I do believe that they did approach this news release differently than how they approached their CRO Staking Rates update a few weeks ago. Granted, I still think these changes will receive a largely negative reaction but it is important to note when organizations actually apply acquired feedback.
Firstly, Kris did preview this announcement during his AMA two days ago. So when it comes to at least planting seeds, they did that…kind of. This did make the recent news a bit less like a curveball for people who were listening/watching however it was not necessarily easy to find or navigate to within the actual AMA.
Secondly, they did in fact give about a two-week turnaround time for current users and prospective users to act and make decisions based on this new information. While I know this is not an ideal time frame for most people, I think it is important to note that Crypto.com actually did in fact give some sort of notice. Even though it is a small step, it is still a step in the right direction.
All in all, I believe these were necessary steps for Crypto.com to stop hemorrhaging money. While I think they definitely did more bad than good (even on this subsequence news release), the fact that they did improve a bit shouldn’t be ignored. One good piece of news is that users who had staked for the card previously are seemingly grandfathered in with their old staking rates. But with all of the recent changes, one cannot help but think that may also be liable to change in the future.
Is that improvement in transparency and communication enough to stop the price from continuing to tank? I am doubtful but I’d love to hear from you all!
Let me know your opinion below!
